The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-04-28
STORIES OF THE PRESENT DAY
The Treasure Hunters Rich Discovery
in the North Carolina Mountains.
Ffona The Ne1e York Sun.

met IN Richmond the otner ddy Tile oii
man who is known in western North Carolln |
and western Virginia as the Treasure HUM |
er, and when urged a strong desire |
know how he came by his title, he expresses |
his willingness to sit down for talk. :,
''To begin with, y he said, II am singh |
man, and have no relatives in America. !
came from England in 1872 and intended
to buy land and settle down at GREENSBORO
n. c. At Petersburg, Va whllel
en- route, | was taken sick and robbed
of my money, some 5000, and when
reached Greensboro | had only about $40
left. / was naturally broken up and dls-
Outraged, and after little time / dr1fted
into the mountain range to the west OF states
vile, found comfortable cave III Wnlch 10
live, and became q hunter hermit. For the
first three months | saw only two human
faces. | became accustomed to this wild
and solitary life. and entered the towns only
when driven to do so by want OF provisions
or ammunition
at was one day in 1878 that encountered
hunter in the mountains who told me that
l was regarded by the outside world as q
treasure hunter and that there was much
curiosity concerning my movements. 1t mad
been reported that | had found box OF
gold in a cave, and a score of men were
searching the ranges in the hopes of meet
| ing with luck. This was the first time the
idea OF treasure had crossed my mind. In my
rough jaunts | had discovered several caves,
but had not stopped to explore any OF them,
as / had no thought that they had ever been
occupied by man. When | separated from
the hunter, who appeared to be very hon
est man, J. sat down to wonder if it We're
possible for luck to come back to me through
some rich find, and though / smiled at the
thought when it first came up, soon became
deeply interested, and that night scarcely
slept for specializing on what might turn
up.
Bright and early next morning was off
up the range to the northwest, having as my
objective point cave which | had discov-
cred months before in the Iron Mountains,
southwest of Morgantown, 1t took me a
day and half to reach it, for 1t was IN
summer, and the mountains were covered
with plants, roots, and vines TO obstruct
travel. The mouth Of the cave was under
an overhanging ledge, where had creptfor
shelter from a fierce rain storm, and before
leaving the neighborhOOd | entered it far
enough to see that it was a very roomy place,
and that fires had been built there at some
time by the hands of man. 1t seemed to me
as pursued my journey that this cave would
be more likely than any other to contain
something, but the nearer came to it the
more ridiculous seemed the idea of treasure.
Refugees and deserters from the Confeder-
ate army no doubt sought the mountains for
hiding places and after the war they were
infested by outlaws and moonshiners. |
might possibly find rusty gun or knife, but
| could hope for nothing more.
81 came to the spot about noon of the
second day, and to tell you the truth | was
quite disguised with myself for being car
ried away as / had been. | built a fire,
cooked partridge had shot, and made no
move toward entering the cave for a couple
of hours. Then forced myself against my
better Judgment to prepare three or four
torches and light one and enter the place.
The opening was about as large as a hogs
head, but scarcely had gone ten feet when
the cave became chamber. There was a
pretty strong draught coming out of it,
| proving that it had another opening, and the
| floor and sides were as dry as bone. 1t was
| a good place for snakes and varInints, and |
| proceeded very cautiously on that account.
| The firebrands / had previously discovered
had been undisturbed. The fire had been
built just at the entrance of circular cham
| Der which must have been twenty-five feet
| across and the draught would take all the
| smoke out of the mouth of th& cave and
scatter it among the thick pines. | found
| not only large heap of ashes and charred
brands, but pile of fagots which had been
! laid aside and never burned. Near by were
a moldy old haversack, heap of mold
representing wooden blanket, an army belt,
a rusty revolver, bayonet, a lot of bones
| of birds and animals, and a pair of boots
which had become useless to the owner be-
fore he threw them away.
1T was plain enough that outlaws, desert
ers, or refugees had made this cave
| their hiding place, and | began to look for
| further relics. | started to the right, and
! circled the chamber just halt, and then came
| to a narrow paSSageway leading into a
second chamber. went back and circled
| to the left, but found nothing until | again
reached this passage. Leaving a torch
burning in the outer chamber, [ lighted
second, and passed into the next. The rift
| or passageway was about ten feet long and
there was almost enough draught here to
extinguish my torch. The temperature of
| the cave stood about So, while that of the
summer day outside was fully S.
| Il found the second chamber to be an al
| most square room, measuring, ] should
think, 16x24. The floor was not so even as
! that of the other nor was the roof as high.
| The draught came out of rift or blowhole
! i'll the roof, but | could not locate the exact
spot. had scarcely entered the place be-
| fore | knew that an important discovery was
on the tapis. There was a bundle of clothes
| against the rocky side, and two guns, which
/ afterward found to be shotguns of ancient
make, leaned against the side approached
| the heap of stuff and began tearing it to
pieces with my foot. The articles were
better preserved than in the other room,
| probably because the room was drier, and
because they were directly in the draught of
pure air. One of the first things / kicked
aside was small leather trunk, provided
with handles like a valise, and used as
valise 1t was Of English make, and while
it must have been many years old before it
saw the cave, and had probably been there
for several years, the leather was still ingood
condition and the lock all right. There were
in addition to the satche two iron kettles,
some tin and erockery dishes, some rough
cutlery, two or three blankets and bedquilts,
sharp and rusty butcher knife, a suit of
rough clothes, a coarse pair of shoes, evil
IDENTIFY worn by a female, and a small
wooden box in which | found buttons of
various sizes and needles and thread. That
two or three persons had occupied the cave
in company, and that one of them was a
woman, there could be no room for doubt.
The trunk was the only thing likely to
contain any object of value, and | carried
IT out through both caves to daylight Its
weight led me TO believe that it was full of
dishes or cutlery, and before | could break
the lock and get a sight of the contents | be-
came 80 nervous that | was all in a tremble.
II was a minute or two before | dared in
s5ect the contents Then took out several
towels, two white shirts two or three fine
handlSerchiefs and then came to two buck
skin bags which knew contained money